1832.] On the State of Criminal Justice in France. 415 



much less is any indemnity obtained on acquittal. During the period 

 of such punishment by anticipation, the judge of instruction may apply 

 every species of torture short of the actual rack. Solitary confinement 

 in a dark cell long and harassing secret examinations privations 

 beyond those usually inflicted in prisons all communication prevented 

 with family and friends beset by spies day and night, and every casual 

 expression tortured into self-accusation ; such, and many others 

 equally cruel, are the means resorted to by judges of instruction, and 

 persevered in for years, in the hope of overcoming the patience of the 

 accused, and inducing an avowal of what perhaps does not exist. 

 " Nemo tenetur se ipsum accusare" is a maxim of our own law ; so it is 

 of the jurisprudence upon which the French pretend to have founded 

 theirs ; yet it is spurned in the practical criminal law of France, where 

 so much importance is attached to an avowal or admission of crime on 

 the part of the accused, that to obtain it every mean stratagem is em- 

 ployed. 



The proceedings are carried on, in secrecy, under the direction of the 

 public prosecutor, and the accused denied all access to them. The law 

 even provides, that each witness summoned by a judge of instruction 

 shall be heard, out of the presence of the accused, who is thus kept in 

 ignorance of the charges against him. In a word, the leading principle 

 of the Code d' Instruction Criminelle seems to be, that the means of accus- 

 ing and prosecuting shall be subject to no restraint, and those of defence 

 confined to the narrowest possible compass. 



The judge of instruction terminates his share of the prosecution by a 

 report to the Chamber of Counsel, composed of five judges, over whom 

 lie himself presides. If the accused is to be discharged, there must be 

 unanimity of opinion in this chamber, a single vote being sufficient to 

 send him before the Cour lloyale. Thus the opinion of the judge of 

 instruction, when unfavourable to the prisoner, decides the point, and 

 his report is always signed by the other judges, as a matter of course. 



When the proceedings are transmitted to the Chamber of Accusation, 

 which is a section of the Cour Royale, the accused is called upon to 

 furnish, within five days, a written justification, without, however, 

 being allowed to see the proceedings, or to know the specific charges 

 against him. This is quite a mockery of justice, as likewise is the 

 decision of this chamber, which is always given upon the report of one 

 of its members delegated to examine the case. All the proceedings of 

 the Chambers of Counsel and of Accusation are secret ; and the secret 

 deliberations of judges in France are, to use the words of an eminent 

 lawyer of that country, ' ' des ^changes d'egards et de procedes avec Mon- 

 sieur le Procureur General auxquelles ou sacrifie impunement, dans le 

 secret du conseil, I'honneur et le repos des families.'' 



The report of the judge of instruction, confirmed by the Chambers of 

 Counsel and of Accusation, contains, in too many cases, broad allegations, 

 unsupported by the slightest evidence ; and to such an extent is this 

 carried, not only in such report, but likewise in the Procureur General's 

 act of accusation, that facts are assumed, and false inferences drawn, for 

 the mere purpose of presenting a case to the jury.* It may readily be 



* This may appear too highly coloured, but it is, nevertheless, literally true. 

 The public prosecutor and the judge of instruction have, to use a French expres- 

 sion, la tUc clans le mime bonnet ,-" and when an individual, however innocent, has 



